School Marks Darwin's Birthday

Teachers, Students Hearing More Talk Of Creationism

February 12, 2006|By RITU KALRA; Courant Staff Writer

MANCHESTER — The low rumble of the cultural war between evolution and creationism that has gripped much of the nation is still background noise in most Connecticut classrooms, according to public and private school teachers and students who celebrated Charles Darwin's 197th birthday one day early at Manchester Community College Saturday.

But, they say, the volume is growing louder.

``I've had several students who've asked if they could do a power point presentation on intelligent design,'' said Eileen Roark, who teaches biology to sophomores at Nathan Hale-Ray High School in the Moodus section of East Haddam.

``I've said to them, `I'm sorry, we only do science in science class.' They don't seem to have a problem with it. I get the impression it's more their parents who've wanted it than them.''

``We all have to go to biology class, but if you talk to some of the students they say, `My parents say we're not allowed to believe in evolution,''' said Sarah Perkins, 12. She and her friends are making a documentary on Darwin as part of a school history project.

The girls are particularly anxious about where the debate could go in the future.

``It may be just evolution today,'' Sarah said. But if creationism -- or intelligent design, is allowed to creep into science classrooms, she and her friends are afraid that soon enough there will be textbook stickers warning students about the ``speculative nature'' of all sorts of things scientific, such as the existence of tectonic plates.

The consequences would be profound, said Kenneth Miller, a Catholic biology professor at Brown University, who sees no conflict between his religion and evolution.

``Literally everything is at stake,'' Miller said during the keynote speech Saturday to an audience of about 75. ``It's a question of whether we raise a generation of American kids who don't trust science.''

That mistrust would result in a workforce ill-equipped to compete globally, Miller said -- and could thwart future scientific breakthroughs that inspire and improve the human condition.

The author of ``Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution,'' and the co-author of one of the most popular high school biology textbooks in the country, Miller is a staunch advocate for the argument that evolution is not anti-religious.

``The notion that you have to choose between evolution and religion creates a false dualism,'' he said.

The proponents of intelligent design -- the belief that the complexity of life is proof of an intelligent creator -- have fought bitterly for years to place the philosophy on equal footing with evolution in classrooms.

Despite a stinging loss in federal court over a high-profile case in Dover, Pa. in December and the decision last month by a school district in Kern County, Calif. to back away from a course called the ``Philosophy of Design,'' intelligent design proponents have made significant inroads. The Kansas state board of education late last year adopted science standards that shed doubt on evolution because it is just a theory.

To that argument, Miller has a ready retort: ``Of course evolution is a theory. But theories and facts are not opposite. Theories never become facts -- theories explain facts.''